After borrowing Tumblr’s reblog feature, like feature and launching audio blogging to the masses, it looks like Automattic’s goal is to transform the WP.com community into a larger version of Tumblr.
At least it did today after WordPress announced their latest feature, dubbed “subscriptions.”
[T]oday we’re introducing a new subscriptions feature to WordPress.com. Subscriptions are an easy way to track and read posts across multiple blogs, all in once place. [...]
Let’s say you’re reading a blog on WordPress.com that you really enjoy — so much so you want to be notified when new posts are published so you remember to read them. You can subscribe to this blog really easily by using the “Subscribe” menu in the admin bar. By going up to your admin bar, and clicking “Subscribe to blog”, you’ll be instantly subscribed and all current and future posts will be added to the subscriptions tab on your WordPress.com home screen. (Official WordPress Blog) read more
Despite popularizing the art of reblogging (or at least convincing WordPress, Typepad and LiveJournal of its worth), crediting the original author has (more or less) been an ugly affair on Tumblr.
Instead of ignoring the problem (something a few other platforms do) Tumblr has decided to skip the “requotes” and credit the original author instead.
Starting today, reblogging will no longer insert attribution into the content/caption of the post except to quote content added by the parent post.
This means we’re no longer cluttering up post content with reblog attribution. But where did it go? The Dashboard already attributes reblogs’ parent blogs, and now it automatically attributes the source blog clearly and consistently[.] (Tumblr Staff Blog)
Another benefit of Tumblr’s new approach to reblogging is that sites outside of Tumblr (or at least those credited within a post) receive proper attribution and attention minus the reblog distractions.
Tumblr’s approach is similar in many ways to Twitter’s native retweet, who made a similar move in November of 2009.
Unlike the twitterverse however, Tumblr’s new approach is receiving praise from the community (minus a few disgruntaled souls of course), and it will be interesting to see if other platforms copy Tumblr’s new approach to reblogging in the not so distant future.
After dethroning Typepad for the bronze, it looks as if Tumblr has reached yet another milestone by surpassing one billion posts!
Today, Tumblr passed one BILLION posts!
I never imagined we would make it this far so quickly, and apparently neither did Jacob when he designed the About page.
The things you do with Tumblr continue to blow our minds. :) (Tumblr Staff Blog)
Tumblr has yet to reveal which member published the billionth post, but either way this is quite an accomplishment for a company that did not exist four years ago. read more
After conquering the iPhone as well as Blackberry smartphones, Tumblr has invaded the Android Market minus the official announcement.
This weekend, popular blogging site Tumblr has quietly released an official Tumblr application for the Android platform. [...]
The Tumblr Android application provides users much of the same experience as posting on the standard web. Android users can now post pictures, links, quotes, audio, video and basically any other mobile content you can think of right to your Tumblr blog. Also, the official Tumblr app includes the dashboard, which contains all of your content (both posts and drafts of posts) as well as the content of any people you follow on the Tumblr service. (Android And Me)
The Tumblr for Android app is very similar to its iPhone brother with the only major exception being that the former lacks twitter integration (a feature recently rolled out to iPhone Tumblrs).
Once again it looks as if Tumblr tapped Mobelux to create an official smartphone app (the latter was responsible for developing Tumblr’s official iPhone and Blackberry apps).
While Tumblr’s Android entrance will displease a few third party developers, having an official app will help the micro blogging service compete against Twitter as well as WordPress (both who are intent on conquering the mobile frontier).
After copying Tumblr’s reblog feature earlier, it looks as if Automattic (the company behind WordPress) is copying yet another feature from the microblogging service.
Starting today you’ll notice a new feature at the bottom of all WordPress.com blog posts. We’ve enabled a “Like” button, which, when clicked, shows a Gravatar image for all the bloggers who like a post.
When you “like” a post two core things happen. First, the blog post’s author sees your “like” and can click-through to your Gravatar profile. Second, clicking “like” saves the post in your homepage dashboard (in the “Posts I Like” section), so you can share it with others, or just keep it around for future reference. (Official WordPress Blog)
Currently the only difference between WordPress’s like feature and Tumblr’s is the fact that the former uses a star as an icon while the latter uses a heart symbol.
While the like feature does make WordPress much more social, it does make one wonder whether Automattic and Tumblr are stealing each other’s ideas (as the latter copied Automattic’s mass post editing feature in June).
Thus far this feature is only available to WP.com users, although self hosting WordPress fans can mimic the “like” feature by using the Facebook like button.
After dethroning Typepad for the bronze medal of bloghood, it looks as if Tumblr has finally decided to implement OAuth within its API (or application programming interface for you non-geeks) for third party clients.
For increased security and more resilient third-party apps, we’ve started early testing of OAuth support in the Tumblr API.
We’ve modeled our implementation after Twitter’s in many ways, supporting OAuth 1.0a with optional xAuth, upon request, where it makes sense such as mobile and native applications.
The existing authentication methods in the API are still supported for now, but we encourage developers to migrate to OAuth when possible. (Tumblr Staff Blog) read more
Today is a sad day for Six Apart, who was unable to slow down Tumblr’s rise against Typepad, despite copying the former’s reblogging feature in 2009.
According to Quantcast, Tumblr is now receiving 10.7 million uniques when compared against Typepad’s 10.6 million stateside, although the gap between the two services expands once you include international users. read more
Tumblr has just rolled out a new feature that should make the Tumblr brigade (aka probloggers on Tumblr) rejoice!
It looks like users will now be able to add as well as edit tags upon numerous posts, as well as remove posts en masse without having to open up each one separately.
Still very beta, Tumblr’s new mass post editor currently supports editing tags and deleting multiple posts. More options are in the works.
You’ll see the “Mass-editor” button when viewing your blog on the Dashboard. (Official Tumblr Blog)
Tumblr’s mass editor is even easier to use than Google’s Blogger (which truth be told is light year’s ahead of WordPress).
It will be interesting to see whether other blog platforms like Typepad and LiveJournal (who each copied Tumblr’s rebloggingfeature, respectively) adopt this upon their own platforms. read more
Perhaps slander is a harsh word (malign and misinform might be better candidates), but it looks like Posterous campaign to demonize everyone continues with its latest target being Tumblr.
But blogging on Tumblr is sort of like being in high school. But you know deep-down that you can’t be in high school forever. Eventually, you have to move on.
It’s the same with blogging. After you get your feet wet, you need comments and the ability to moderate them.* You need to add different media types to each post. Your sharing needs are more complex, and your site needs to grow with you. [...]
With Posterous there are no limits to your self expression. You can use Posterous to run your private family email list, proudly promote your business or set up a multi-user site where everyone contributes posts via email without having to set up an account. If you can imagine it, you can do it on Posterous. (Official Posterous Blog)
As you can see from the graphic above, Posterous also indicates that Tumblr lacks “real comments” and privacy features, as well as a decent email-to-post feature (something that is considered standard for most blogging platforms).
Instead of dismissing the Posterous propaganda in its entirety, lets go through each of their claims to see if any of them have any merit. read more
It looks like “Tumblr envy” is spreading throughout the blogosphere as LiveJournal has joined WordPress (not to mention Typepad as well) in copying a feature that has set apart Tumblr from the rest of its rivals.
You can add a repost button that allows other users to share all or part of your entries on LiveJournal. Please note that you must disable auto-formatting to insert a repost button. This button is only intended for public entries (i.e., if your entry is marked friends-only and you add the repost button, the entry can be reposted publicly by others, although the original post will remain friends-only). (Official LiveJournal Blog) read more
